Failed CV joints anyone?

[kangfu]

Ive had a boot come loose but the joint itself was fine.

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[seangti]

It'd take more than a handful of track drays to wreck CV joints, and many of us (including me) have done more than a handful. That's not to say that trackdays don't put extreme pressure on CV's, wheel bearings etc, so I just add that to part of the race track costs (well, hope that I sell the car before I incur such costs...).

Semi slick tyres would increase the wear on such components due to the increased grip and subsequent forces.

[Bora Sport]

I have owned front wheel drive cars all my life including at least 8 Golf's, a Vento that did 440,000k's. I currently own a Bora 4 motion with 230,000k's a Seat Ibiza Cupra with over 160,000k's and a Polo GTI with 78,000k's that I have run for an afternoon at Queensland Raceway. The Cupra also ran that day driven by my son. I have tracked no less that 5 of my cars starting with my Honda Civic at Lakeside in 1974. I have never replaced a CV joint in what must be well over 1,000,000 k's. My experience is that the only time they fail is if the boot gets ripped. This lets the grease get thrown out and the dirt and grit in.

My mate has a Caddy turbo diesel (work vehicle) which is based on the Polo. He had a CV fail at just over 100,000k's but once again it was because the boot broke.

[kaanage]

The service department guy's words were "the CV joints are a well known weakness in all Polos".

He then recommended that if I intended to to do any more track days, I should look o/s for vw racing spec replacement CV joints because they're much stronger being "made of brass". Something makes me suspect that the heat treated, surfaced hardened steel used in normal Rzeppa CV joint cages and races have somewhat higher yield strengths than any brass

[Transporter]

The full turn at the high speed a and loads put also more stress on the cv joints, but I didn't hear that failed cv joint would be common on VW except the T5 which some reported fail before 100,000km and that was at the early days.

[seangti]

The service department guy's words were "the CV joints are a well known weakness in all Polos".

Funny how they (grossly generalising dealers here) can say it's common when very few of the members here have experienced it, yet tell them the control arm bushes, strut top mounts or CD players are crap and it's the first they've heard of it.

[Guy_H]

I think there has been more Polo Diff failures than CV failures

[Jmac]

Yep as above . Worked on MANY GTis and the only ones ive done( 2 ) out of not sure how many now to be honest , was due to the car being flogged or damaged in a collision. Yeah probably seen more gearbox dramas than CVs.
Jmac

[kaanage]

I think there has been more Polo Diff failures than CV failures

Yeah probably seen more gearbox dramas than CVs.

Well I'm praying I don't have any diff or gearbox issues anytime soon as the dealer says my suspension mods (Bilstein cup kit) have invalidated the warranty on these items too.